Dollar General Corp. committed “numerous and blatant” violations of federal labor law in its effort to defeat a unionization drive, including illegally firing an activist employee and making an implied threat to close a store, a US labor-board judge ruled.
The company “clearly intended to interfere” with employees’ rights to organize at a Connecticut store, National Labor Relations Board judge Arthur Amchan wrote Monday, and the violations “involve individuals at the highest levels” of company management. “They were also committed pursuant to a corporate policy as to how to deal with organizing efforts by Dollar General employees.”
The judge wrote that Dollar General should be required to cease and desist from coercing employees, offer the fired activist reinstatement, and send notices to employees throughout the US about their rights.
The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based discount chain, which didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry, has denied wrongdoing. Employees at the store voted against unionizing in 2021 by a vote of 3 to 2.
NLRB judges’ rulings can be appealed to labor-board members in Washington, and from there into federal court. The agency has the power to order reinstatement of fired workers and changes to policies, but not to hold managers personally liable or force companies to pay punitive damages.
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Dollar General, which has more US locations than any other retailer, has also been under scrutiny by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which last year placed Dollar General on its “severe violator” list of companies with working conditions that endanger employees. The retailer has accumulated more than $21 million in proposed OSHA penalties since 2017. The company has said that it has a “commitment to all matters that can affect our workplace experience, including safety and wellbeing.”
